Generally, vehicles are provided with a transmission shift schedule configured to shift a transmission gear position of a transmission system of the vehicle according to changing vehicular conditions during vehicle travel. In particular, the shift schedule may effectuate a change in the transmission gear position based upon vehicle speed and accelerator pedal depression. As is common in most vehicles, a user may depress an accelerator pedal or similar device to indicate a desire to increase the speed of the vehicle. Based upon the accelerator pedal depression, the current vehicle speed and the current transmission gear ratio, a transmission gear position change may be effectuated. For example, if a user depresses the accelerator pedal moderately (indicating a desire to increase the speed of the vehicle) the transmission shift schedule may maintain the current transmission gear position to achieve the desired speed. However, if a user depresses the accelerator pedal excessively (indicating a desire to greatly increase the speed of the vehicle) the transmission shift schedule may downshift the transmission gear position to achieve the desired speed.
Subsequent to vehicle deceleration (without completely stopping), a user may desire to accelerate, or, more specifically, re-accelerate, the vehicle with moderate accelerator pedal depression. However, current shift schedules may not permit a downshift to a lower transmission gear position to achieve such moderate re-acceleration during such situations. Therefore, the user might further depress the accelerator pedal in this situation to re-accelerate the vehicle as desired. Such excessive accelerator pedal depression may initiate a downshift to a lower transmission gear position, but may also re-accelerate the vehicle more rapidly than desired by the user. To minimize such over-acceleration while re-accelerating, the user may quickly release the depression of the accelerator pedal, thereby causing the vehicle to decelerate and upshift to the next transmission gear ratio. Such sudden accelerator pedal depression and transmission gear position change soon followed by a sudden release of the accelerator pedal may adversely affect vehicle performance. Accordingly, there is a need to assist acceleration of a vehicle during re-acceleration without having to depress the accelerator pedal excessively.